How to Spot a REAL Leader

Who are the REAL leaders in your organization? Can you pick them out of the crowd?

Your organization likely has tens, hundreds or thousands of so-called ‘leaders’. We use the title far too loosely these days. It might be more appropriate to say your organization has many supervisors, managers or even bosses, but I suspect you have only a few leaders. There’s a big difference and it matters, it REALLY matters. Just as a dog can smell fear, employees can spot a leader...from a mile away. 

A leader by definition, is going somewhere. They are looking and moving forward. They aren’t solely focused on the here and now, and they aren’t focused on where they’ve come from. They’re constantly scanning the horizon looking for new opportunities, new challenges, new heights to scale. They aren’t solely focused on performance (aka the Supervisor), they aren’t singularly oriented to cost, schedule or quality (aka the Manager) and they’re not consumed with directing the work of others (aka the Boss). Nor are they politicking, grand-standing, pontificating or rebroadcasting other people’s ideas. No, they cannot keep their eyes from lifting to the horizon and anticipating what might lie ahead. Like a moth to a flame, fueled by curiosity and an insatiable desire for more, they cannot help themselves but be drawn to ‘what could be’. They aren’t fixing today’s problems either, they’re out in front anticipating tomorrow’s solutions. 

The other key identifier of a leader is that the future they see is always bigger than they can handle. Therefore, they need others to join them on the mission. This is true inclusion. They recognize the need for the unique skills those others bring that they lack themself, this is true diversity. A leader, by default, must have at least one follower, specifically one person who willingly, by their own desire and for their own benefit or peril chooses to join the mission. 

Managers come and go, bosses are secretly celebrated when they leave and supervisors are quickly forgotten and replaced, but leaders just keep moving forward to new missions, new ideas and new futures and often their followers tag in behind, trusting the instincts and protection of the leader. Can you start to see the difference? 

So why is it that inherently, followers (often bestowed the non-illustrustrious title of employees) can spot this a mile away? What is this siren call of the leader? What is the one characteristic that defines them better than any other? It’s simply their ability to see the potential in people. After all, the true leader needs help to take the hill ahead. They need talent, skills, knowledge, abilities and sheer effort that they can’t produce themselves (that’s the ‘Entrepreneur’). Hence the REAL leader has the vision to look at people and see opportunity, potential and contribution. They can see the inherent value and power in others, ALL others. The wider the audience in which they see it and the more clearly defined it is when they do, the stronger they are as a leader. And that, like a tuning fork, resonates within each of us, striking our deepest chords of fulfillment, meaning and purpose. 

Andrew Carnegie, the American Industrialist said "Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floors……Take away my factories, but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory." 

The currency of the REAL leader is people. Think of how you’ve felt when a past leader has shared the secret of what could lie ahead, something you’d never thought of or dreamed possible and then they ask for your help. It’s almost too good to be true, we call it “opportunity”. They need us, they want us, they value our ability to help them scale the wall, fight the battle or take the trench. Something inside of us comes alive. If you can’t think of such a time, then I’m sad for you my friend. Make it your new life’s mission to go find a leader and hitch your wagon to them. Go for the thrilling ride! Life is too short to simply “work for a living”. 

If you want to tap into your own REAL leadership potential, I suggest you examine where your focus lies? Are you lost in the forest, battling only today’s fires and sorting out yesterday’s troubles? Or are you keeping an eye ahead on what could be, what might be, what’s possible? Are you watching your team members like a hawk, not to catch them doing something wrong but to see what they do right, what they do REALLY, REALLY right? Do you catch yourself continually fine-tuning your team to align the skills of the members with the tasks at hand to get more and more horsepower from this machine you call a team? 

Now here’s the pitch. There is a pathway and a process to this. There is a systematic way to think about your people (and yourself) that leads to this ability to find and draw out the best in others. There are four universal laws of contribution that will not be denied...by anyone...ever. You would do well to learn them, see them in your own life first and then learn to see them in others. If not, then be satisfied to be a manager, a supervisor or a boss. Afterall, we need those too!

Allow me to share these four laws with you. Pick up your copy of Superpower: Release the Potential in your Team on Amazon, Indigo or most online retailers worldwide. Better, yet, why not gather a few of your colleagues, who are also bestowed the title of leader, and challenge one another with the Leader’s Discussion Guide available on Amazon or by downloading it from  MarkFrezell.com. Live out your potential to be a REAL leader.